Comment on Electronic Aiding of Stringed Instrument Sound

by R.W. Burhans

Originally published in Guild of American Luthiers Data Sheet #10, 1975

Introduction

In perspective we should view modern sound reproduction as an “Electronic Art” which requires somewhat different types of skills than the “Mechanical Art” developed by the Luthier. The same type of careful attention to detail are required in both and there is no substitute for long hours at the workbench with a lot of reading of the literature published in periodicals like: Popular Electronics, Radio-Electronics, Rolling Stone, Guitar Player, Electronotes Newsletter, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, and even Scientific American. There is even a trade quarterly circulated to music shops, Musical Product News and Musical Electronics, which is a sales promotion and product announcement type with information on the myread of stuff on the current market. Still others are dB the sound studio engineers magazine, a magazine called Audio, and another DB, Down Beat.